Natel Energy announces feasibility study for FishSafe™ turbine retrofit at St. Lawrence-FDR Power Project

MASSENA, NY – July 23, 2025 – Natel Energy (Natel) was selected by the Fish Enhancement, Mitigation and Research Fund’s (FEMRF) Fisheries Advisory Committee (FAC) to  conduct  a design feasibility study to assess the downstream fish passage benefits of  retrofitting the existing hydroelectric turbines at the St. Lawrence-Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) Power Project (Project) with Natel’s innovative FishSafe™ Restoration Hydropower Turbine (RHT) technology. The FEMRF is administered by the  U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service). Here's a factsheet for more information.

Natel is an engineering company specializing in the design of high-performance hydraulic turbines that enable downstream fish passage. The FEMRF is a fund established as a result of the relicensing settlement for the Project between  the New York Power Authority for the FDR Project and the Service. The purpose of the FEMRF is to benefit fisheries resources in the Lake Ontario/St. Lawrence River Basin and to continue research on the American eel and other species that may be affected by the Project.

The St. Lawrence-FDR Power Project is located on the United States side of the Robert Moses-Robert H. Saunders Power Dam, which spans the St. Lawrence River and United States-Canada border. As  a vital component of the region's energy infrastructure, the 16 turbines on the US side alone produce over 900 MW of electricity — enough to light a city the size of Washington, DC. 

The St. Lawrence River is also home to a very important population of American eels, a species which was once abundant in the region.  The plant operator, New York Power Authority (NYPA),  has proactively supported these populations, notably with the installation of an award-winning upstream eel passage facility in 2007.  Eels need to migrate downstream to the ocean as large adults, and testing at the Project has shown turbine passage mortality to be around 26%. 

This new FEMRF-funded feasibility study will leverage Natel Energy’s experience in computational design of turbines that enable downstream fish passage.  Natel’s hydraulic turbine designs, which feature optimized  blade shape and thickness, have demonstrated 98-100% survival rates for a variety of fish species, including American eel. The  study will investigate the feasibility of designing new turbine runners for the existing units in the FDR Project to improve survival rates for entrained fish including the imperiled migratory American eel, while meeting expectations for energy generation and mechanical competence. The improved runner design is also expected to provide high survival for other native species such as lake sturgeon, mooneye, walleye, northern pike, and muskellunge. The study may inform future options and decisions on turbine rehabilitation or replacement, focusing on alternatives that can be carried out cost-effectively while achieving major improvements in fish passage survival.

With American eel populations in decline across North America, improving downstream passage survival of adult, egg-bearing female eels at the St. Lawrence-FDR Power Project would support the species rangewide and its important ecological role well beyond the waters of the St. Lawrence River. Enhancing the survival of large female eels in the St. Lawrence River migrating to spawning grounds in the Atlantic would result in higher populations of juvenile eels, thereby assisting in the broader recovery of American eels throughout their range.

“We are incredibly excited about the opportunity to undertake a feasibility study to design RHT runners for the St. Lawrence-FDR Power Project,” said Natel co-founder and CTO, Abe Schneider. “We are confident that we can create designs that are both highly efficient and enable exceptional fish survival. We are particularly motivated by the positive impact FishSafe™ turbines could have for the American eel species.”

The FEMRF, supported by the  FAC, has funded this project because of its potential benefits to multiple declining and ecologically important species (particularly the American eel),  and its international importance for fish populations in the Lake Ontario/St. Lawrence River Basin, impacting both U.S. and Canadian waters.

Natel expects to deliver a draft feasibility report to NYPA and FAC for review by December 2025.

About Natel Energy 

Natel Energy is a technology and engineering company working to support healthy rivers, promote biodiversity and decarbonize the grid by developing hydropower turbines that enable 98-100% downstream passage survival for fish. Natel creates high-performance FishSafe™ turbine designs informed by original fish passage experimental research combined with  industry-leading computational fluid dynamics modeling and analysis. Natel conducts design feasibility studies, performs fish passage and performance testing, and works with trusted turbine manufacturers to implement its runner designs worldwide. Natel is a privately held company located in Alameda, California in the United States. Visit www.natelenergy.com for more information.  

Contact: 

Natel Energy: Kate Stirr, kate@natelenergy.com

‍